[08/05/11 - 12:26 PM]MTV's "Jersey Shore" Season Four Debut Delivers Network's Most Watched Season Premiere Ever With 8.8 Million Total ViewersMTV spins the numbers for Thursday, August 4.

[via press release from MTV]

MTV'S "JERSEY SHORE" SEASON FOUR DEBUT DELIVERS NETWORK'S MOST WATCHED SEASON PREMIERE EVER WITH 8.8 MILLION TOTAL VIEWERS

New York, NY (August 5, 2011) - America's favorite housemates invaded Italy and delivered a record 8.8 million total viewers and an 8.2 P12-34 rating with last night's Season Four premiere of MTV's hit series "Jersey Shore." MTV is a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).

Additional highlights from the August 4 Season Four "Jersey Shore" premiere are:

Last night's episode delivered the biggest audience ever for an MTV season premiere with 8.8 million total viewers - a 4% increase over the "Jersey Shore" Season Three premiere on January 6, 2011 (8.45 million total viewers).

The "Jersey Shore" Season Four premiere is MTV's third most watched series telecast of all time (behind two "Jersey Shore" Season Three telecasts).

In the P12-34 demo, the Season Four premiere averaged an 8.2 rating and 6.5 million viewers on par with its Season Three premiere (8.3 rating, 6.5 million viewers).

Among P12-34, the "Jersey Shore" Season Four premiere is the #4 non-sports cable telecast of 2011, with "Jersey Shore" now occupying the top 14 non-sports slots on cable television this year.

Source: Nielsen. 8/4/11 or as dated. Live+SD. Rank on 000s.

About MTV:

MTV is the world's premier youth entertainment brand. With a global reach of more than a half-billion households, MTV is the cultural home of the millennial generation, music fans and artists, and a pioneer in creating innovative programming for young people. MTV reflects and creates pop culture with its Emmy�, Grammy� and Peabody� award-winning content built around compelling storytelling, music discovery and activism across TV, online and mobile. MTV's sibling networks MTV2 and mtvU each deliver unparalleled customized content for young males, music fans and college students, and its online hub MTV.com is the leading destination for music, news and pop culture. MTV is part of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms.